Finally a Philly Beer Week Recap: Day 1 at Alla Spina

Yeah so Philly Beer Week was like two weeks ago at this point and I haven't written a word. Part of that was I didn't go to that many events but really I just haven't quite had the time. I wonder how long I can milk having a child as the reason I don't write. I'm thinking, like, a few months. Sounds reasonable, right? What do you all think?

But, yeah, whatever, I'm finally writing something today at least. The first night we were all going to go to Alla Spina and sit outside and it would have been super fun. Unfortunately, it was nearly 95 degrees and we decided having a two week old out in that heat probably wasn't a good idea. Don't bring your kid to the bar on a super hot day is probably parenting 101. So, instead I went by myself and bothered the bartender and Steve Wildy, the manager of Alla Spina and beverage guy (he probably has a far fancier title but this describes it just fine) for the Vetri group. Steve's the super skinny guy that's at Alla Spina a lot so say hi if you see him. Here's a picture of the taps and also Steve's back.

He's the one not in Alla Spina blue in the middle.

Cascade Sang Noir

I picked this bottle up when my wife was pregnant with the express purpose of waiting for her to be able to drink it. Well, Pax is here, she can finally enjoy beer again, and so we opened the Sang Noir this weekend. This is a complex sour, aged in two types of barrels and then with bing cherries added to it. Or something close to that.

Lots of vanilla creaminess and a decent amount of sour cherry in the nose. Draws you in for sure. Thick body, low carbonation too. First sip is a bit of a punch in the mouth. Hugely acetic and then a large amount of sour cherry in the finish. Even with the crazy start, I felt like it ended remarkably smooth. As I drank more, the cherry presence was much stronger as well. Solidly powerful sour, probably not one for novices, but fun for those that like a bit of brashness in their wilds.

The Bruery and Hangar 24 Ichigo Highway

Phew, what a week. I thought I was getting back into things last week and then I barely had any time in the morning during this one. But Pax is asleep on me at the moment so lets get something written. Ichigo Highway is a sour aged with strawberries brought to you by the good people from The Bruery and Hangar 24. If you've never heard of the latter, no real surprise as they are a smallish brewery outside San Diego (or that's where I think they are. They could be outside LA too. Somewhere in California at least). I only have this because of my generous friend that lives near there.

I'd actually heard positive and negative things about Ichigo Highway so didn't know what to expect. Honestly, though, I quite enjoyed it. Fruity, candy like nose with quite a bit of strawberry. I was a bit worried as Bottleworks XII was brewed with strawberries and had a big, sulfur like nose but this one didn't have any of those notes. Some funk and a lot of acid also showed up though. Body was crazy sour with a big helping of lactic and acetic acid. Since acetic acid presents as vinegar, it could have easily been the accented by the strawberries. At times, some slightly odd notes showed up but they disappeared quickly as well so whatever. Maybe someone more sensitive would be bothered by those flavors hence the bad reviews. Quite happy to try this and nice to see a fruit different than cherry and raspberry being used.

Drie Fonteinen Herfst

Besides being hard to pronounce, the Drie Fonteinen Herfst is one geuze out of a set of four. Armand, the owner and blender and mostly everything else at Drie Fonteinen, created one geuze named for each season. Each was priced quite a bit higher than the normal geuze because I believe he was using this set to fund creating a new brewery. Regardless, they were all fancy blends using the best barrels according to him and people seemed to really, really like them. Jo and I picked up two of the four when we visited Belgium last year and boy am I glad I did.

For those that don't know, official, proper geuze is a blend of one, two, and three year old lambics. Some breweries cheat that definition but definitely not Drie Fonteinen. Musty, oaky nose with a little hint of vanilla. Body was tart and a little bitter with a nice sour finish. Pretty dry, but not empty as there was a little sweetness.

While my recollection of their normal geuze could be off since it has been a while, I felt like this one was a little more bitter. More like Cantillon in that respect. Still, this was delicious and pretty awesome and totally worth the cost of entry. I mean, we only paid 24 euros so like $32. Considering their normal geuze is around $20 in the states, pretty worth it. Just a delicious, delicious beer. Jo really liked it too.

Still Here!

This is going to be a short one just to say I'm still here. I used to do all my writing in the morning, but now Pax is here and is taking up all that time. It's going to be a little longer before I figure things out I think. On the beer front, we opened one of our bottles of the Drie Fonteinen seasons (a geuze named after autumn) which was amazing and I've attended a couple beer week events. Definitely a very different year but, well, we have a two week old now.

Not sure what will happen the rest of beer week but Jo, Pax and I went to Kite & Key for lunch today which was fun. Still possibly attending the Dark Horse event at Cambridge, but I'm not sure that will fly. We'll see. Otherwise, maybe Bell's at Kite & Key tomorrow and that's probably about it. Sunday, I'll be at Tired Hands for maybe an hour to pick up some bottles and try Only Void. And that ends Philly Beer Week really. Next year I'll make up for it!

So yeah, that's the state of things. I hope to get back to at least 3 posts a week but I haven't even been drinking as much with Pax around so we'll see.